“You don’t have to answer him,” Leth says suddenly. He’s done with his food, sitting with his knees up and his arms around them. “He’s always like this.”
Evain leans a little closer. “Like what?”
Firelight dances in Leth’s glare, but he doesn’t move away.
Tally laughs. “Pass the bottle back, will you? I’m an acolyte of Edren. The Wild Mother.”
Carefully balancing his cup, Evain stretches to return the bottle via Haldis. Ever-curious Marta takes up the questions about Tally’s practice. Whether he can talk to plants—not quite—or if he’s immune to poison—yes. The local foliage is also how he locates rifts so precisely.
While they talk, Evain looks over to find Leth watching him again. This time, it takes Leth a moment longer to look away.
Already tipsy from the breath of Leth’s attraction, Evain shifts on the ground and lounges a little closer. He says just for the two of them, “Did you want a drink?”
“All right,” Leth answers, just as quietly.
Evain takes a sip first. The liquor is honey-sweet and burns down his throat. The vanilla lingers on his lips as he passes the cup to Leth. Their bare fingers don’t quite touch. Somehow, the knowledge theyalmosttouched burns even hotter than the alcohol.
“What about you, Leth?” Darren asks from across the fire. “The way you fought back at the outpost looked a little like Reed. Did you serve in the military like he used to?”
Leth’s lips tighten almost imperceptibly, but his voice is steady in reply. “No, I’ve just trained with a lot of soldiers over the years. I spent a few years with the Port Charain Riverswords.” His gaze lowers. “What brought you and Bricks to Captain Oakven’s company?”
Darren takes the change of topic and runs with it, without seeming to notice Leth was deflecting. But maybe Evain shouldn’t feel so smug about knowing Leth better than any of them, because he has no idea why Lethdidn’tjoin the military.
Logically, Leth should have enlisted. When Evain first passed through Ostaris two centuries ago, the ka Tariels already ran the Charaini military. Combine Leth’s rigid work ethic and religious fervor with his pathological devotion to duty, and Ronan should have been recruiting him out of the army instead of a tiny mercenary troop.
But he didn’t enlist. Evain wonders if Leth will deflect his questions too, if he asks.
Leth brings the wooden cup to his lips. The movement slows in the firelight, and Evain can focus on nothing else. Leth’s lower lip indents at the wooden rim, and the angle of his neck makes Evain’s fingers itch to touch him. The knowledge that Leth’s mouth is pressed to the same cup that Evain just drank from makes Evain’s blood quicken, and his heart drums with the staccato beat of obsession.
Like a brand-new rift, pulling him closer and closer. Evain is all too willing to be dragged in.
?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LETH
“Who’s on watch tonight?” The liquor’s as strong as Tally promised. Leth passes the cup back to Evain after a single sip. “I can take a shift.”
From the corner of his eye, he watches Evain rub his thumb over the rim of the cup.
“I’ll take the first shift,” Darren says quickly. “I’m useless for late shifts.”
“Darkblade here sleeps like a fucking log once he’s out,” Bricks confirms.
Evain takes a tiny sip, lips curling in a smirk for some unknown reason. “All right, how about Darren, Bricks, me, then Leth?” He raises his cup to the paladins and Tally. “You three can take turns tomorrow—I think dashing Sir Marta needs her beauty sleep tonight.”
“That rift was a bastard,” Marta agrees sleepily.
Leth sits back against the rocks as the others chat. The rock is cold through his coat, and the hard ground is a far cry from the inns they’ve been staying at through Charain. But Leth is more comfortable than he’s been in a long time. He hadn’t had a true fight since the Unbinding. Only when his blade sliced into the vaidkos’s neck had he realized how much he needed this. Adrenaline. Purpose. Thesafetyof combat, when he knows what to do, and he knows his companion has his back.
There was something different about fighting with Evain today. They’ve fought together before—infiltrating Fort Tarhaeg, breaking into the Bright Cathedral. Evain was always competent and powerful.
But he hadn’t seamlessly adapted to Leth’s fighting style the way he did today. He was so attuned to Leth’s movements that at every step, he placed himself exactly where Leth needed him. Drawing the vaidkos’s attention, distracting, repositioning. Giving Leth the perfect opening for slaughter.
The memory is almost as warm as the red scarf around his neck.
Maybe working with Evain isn’t so bad, even if he’s demon-bound. As long as Evain’s not hurting anyone, and as long as they’re working towards a worthy cause, Leth wouldn’t mind letting Evain watch his back a while longer.
